The National Telecommunications and Information Administration met this week in Washington to construct “best practices” for collecting and storing facial data.The NTIA, a Commerce department body, is working to establish guidelines on how face-recognition technology might apply to the Obama administration's so-called Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights publicized in 2012.For example, the draft guidelines state that entities are “encouraged” to make available to consumers, in a reasonable manner and location, privacy policies highlighting such entities' policies regarding collection, storage, and use of facial template data. “Where facial recognition technology is used on a physical premises that a covered entity controls, such entity is encouraged to provide notice to consumers that facial recognition technology is present, and, if contextually appropriate, where consumers can find more information about facial recognition technology's use”.However, privacy advocate groups such as the Center for Digital Democracy have taken aim at the proposed best practice rules.”Lobbyists craft purposefully vague proposals without any real safeguards for biometric data,” Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. “Americans face new privacy threats from the use of their facial and other biometric information, as personal details of our physical selves are captured, analyzed and used for commercial purposes.”Last year, a number of privacy and civil-rights groups withdrew from the discussions because of what they described as an obstinate refusal by tech trade associations to concede even the most basic protections. A particular point of contention was the industry's resistance to a rule that would require companies to obtain written consent before collecting and storing facial data, or “faceprints,” as they're sometimes called.Alvaro M. Bedoya, executive director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center said on Tuesday: “You cannot delete your face ߪ And once companies have enrolled you in a facial-recognition system, there are few limits to what they can do with that information. Consumers must be given a choice as to whether or not this powerful technology will be used on them. Any set of privacy guidelines that doesn't do that is an Orwellian farce.”
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